The Dangers of Fervent Religious Beliefs

The author uses various men, especially Rollo, to show how dangerous religious fanaticism can be. As Ned’s mother Alice tells him after she loses everything and watches Philbert Cobley burn, “when a man is certain that he knows God’s will, and is resolved to do it regardless of the cost, he is the most dangerous person in the world” (200). When people believe they are morally correct, they see everyone else as wrong and overlook similarities to each other.

First, based on the beliefs of Margery and Sylvie, the reader knows that Catholics and Protestants are not as different as they pretend. These women believe strongly in their different religions and do everything they can throughout the novel to perpetuate separate goals. Sylvie sells illegal books to spread her Protestant faith. Margery smuggles priests back into England to revitalize the...